By Samantha Paxson

Real talk. It’s what we all want, and certainly need. With so much change confronting the credit union industry, it’s time to reframe our discussions about how to confront disruption. Let’s talk less about trends and theory, and more about the real strategies for getting after that disruption.

The drive to dig into the tough challenges and the sometimes uncomfortable solutions is exactly what made this year’s Underground Collision experience so fulfilling (held during the NACUSO Network Conference on April 14, 2019, in San Diego, California). I walked away with confirmation that the spirit of innovation and commitment to evolution is alive and well in the credit union space. All we need now is a forceful injection of stubborn optimism to get us to the next level.

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What do I mean by stubborn optimism?

Optimism comes easy when times are good. And, times certainly have been good for credit unions. Lending is up; membership is at all-time highs; and our philosophy and brand is resonating with generations of financial consumers who value relationships with purpose-driven organizations.

Yet, as easy as it comes, optimism is also quick to go. Competition for those same consumers is high – perhaps the most intense it’s ever been. And although many of the digital companies going after them hardest are driven merely by profit, they are pretty good at masquerading that intent with some really fantastic, highly personalized, real-time and predictive experiences. The trade-off just may be worth it for consumers, particularly younger ones who have nothing “traditional” to compare it to.

So, our resolve must be strong. Our optimism, stubborn. The credit union movement has all the tools, all the foundational drive and all the spirit to beat disruptors in the race to excellence. We can’t be afraid. We must be relentless in our pursuit of member love – something that if you think about it, has been there all along.

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Now is the time to mine the movement’s essence, bring it to the surface and use it to build a next-generation credit union ecosystem.

Frankly, it’s what members expect. They need us. We’re the only ones that can authentically say we are helping people in their financial lives. Let’s not let those that provide “the next shiny object” in financial services diminish that relationship. 

Complacency has no place in the modern age. Fintech disruptors and shadow banks have been slowly siphoning away every use case of the traditional financial institution. What’s more, they keep getting better. With nimble technology, off-the-bat data maturity, a collaborative mindset and many other advantages, building new, exciting solutions comes quite a bit easier to startups than it does to their legacy counterparts.

Rather than fear these nimble newbies, let’s find ways to bring them into the credit union ecosystem. By combining the fintech mastery of technology with the movement’s already earned consumer trust, we can collaboratively deliver healthy, viable – and exciting – financial solutions with the member always at the center.

That’s exactly what drives the minds and talent at CO-OP Financial Services these days. We’ve heard the calls from our credit union partners to be more open, to better-enable API integration that more easily brings emerging fintech solutions into their environments. Lucky for us, payments is the ideal playground for this evolution. And, that’s CO-OP’s core competency. We know payments inside and out. Our developers, infosec engineers, data scientists and client experience executives are expediting the integration of new payment mechanisms for the digital age.  

Beyond exploring partnerships with fintech, there’s another really important thing we can do to get outside the bubble of fear. That is to look at the member relationship more holistically. For many years, we have been focused on points of service and product channels individually. If each is performing well, delivering great metrics and wonderful ROI, we feel a misleading sense of success. And the inertia of that feeling can be dangerous – it compels us to keep doing what we’re doing.

Stubborn optimists will look at this model and say, “Let’s shake things up.” They’ll get better at consuming their own data and the data of third parties to really get to know the member as a person with a whole universe of needs, some of which may go beyond traditional financial services. They’ll look at the future of their business from the member in, and they’ll continue to push for that real talk.

Venmo, Alibaba and plenty of other digital native powerhouses have proven that a tech-first, yet consumer-centric, approach to innovation is how you win market share today. We can do the same. We just have to think in new ways while maintaining our industry’s rock-solid, authentic pursuit of financial wellness.

It can be done. I believe in it...stubbornly, optimistically. Will you join me?

About the Author

Samantha Paxson is Chief Experience Officer for CO-OP Financial Services (www.co-opfs.org), a payments and financial technology provider to credit unions. Paxson can be reached at [email protected].